Sakura's Evolution
by AlexisMarieArt
Summary: A shinobi's body can only take so many experiments before something incredible happens. Whether the aftermath is a good thing or a terrible thing is entirely up to the victim. Will Sasuke and Naruto be able to save their friend? Post 4th Shinobi World War. SasuSaku. Minor NaruHina.
1. Living in Memories

**Author's Notes:**

 **Hello Everyone! Thank you for joining me on this journey. I've written the start of many fan-fiction but I almost always become too busy by work or school to take the time to finish them. This time I'm going to do my best to commit and finish writing which is why I'm going to be publishing on here as I do so.**

 **For this first chapter, part of it place in third person, but during Sakura's memories it will take place from her point of view. Hopefully I don't confuse you too much by switching back and forth. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. :)**

 **-Alexis Marie**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

A rank scent and the pattering sound of rodents scurrying filled the cold, concrete room. The only light that could be seen emitted from under the closed door and the lack of windows in the room made it impossible to tell time.

She awoke to a cold blackness. Her head was throbbing and it hurt to keep her eyes open. Her knees were barely resting on the ground with most of her body being suspended by her wrists. Blood was long gone from her fingers; there was nothing but a cold tingling sensation from her shoulders up. She quickly discovered that a wire was holding her legs down by her ankles.

Her body hurt in places she forgot existed.

Somewhere off in the distance the sounds of torture echoed through the bare hallways. Although the screams were obviously in pain and terror, the sounds didn't faze her. After all, it was nothing new in this horrible place. Knowing she was being left alone for the time being, she closed her eyes and sank back into the only place she could truly be happy: her memories.

* * *

"Ready?" He asked me, eyes scanning me over once before returning to the scroll in his hands.

I nodded and tried to keep a cute smile on my face, but my insides were twisting and hurting. I couldn't understand the pain this man caused me. It was painful to be near him when he was someone in the bingo book, and yet it was still painful even though he was a comrade again. He simply nodded at me back and turned to walk in the direction of our destination.

The pain I had was nothing like having butterflies in my stomach for him when I was younger. This pain was…worse than physical. I swallowed hard and bit back tears as I followed him, watching his spiky hair bounce with every leap he took from branch to branch in the tree-tops. Why did he cause me so much pain? I should be happy, shouldn't I? He was a comrade again, running an errand for our Hokage Kakashi, and I was accompanying him.

I tasted blood and quickly brought my hand up to my mouth. Shoot. I didn't even notice I was biting my lip and now I was bleeding. I quickly summoned chakra to my fingertips and healed my bloody lip. It was certainly a good thing I wasn't beside Sasuke, or he would have noticed and probably asked me about it.

Or he would ignore it.

My insides twisted again.

How would he react to me being hurt now? Would he care, like he did when we were younger? Or would he simply ignore me like he did during the early part of the war with Madara? Does he care about anyone except himself and Naruto? It was just so hard to read him…

I let out a quiet sigh. All I wanted was to run up to him, hug him and cry like I would have when we were twelve and thirteen. Cry because I was upset with all the pain I was in, cry because I was happy he was back, and cry because I was frustrated I could never speak my mind around him. The only thing holding me back was that I knew he wouldn't probably shrug me off. I couldn't bare being rejected again.

I shook my head. I couldn't think like that anymore. Sasuke was a comrade, and nothing more. He did not come back to his village for me, for Kakashi, or for any of our friends. He came back because of Naruto, and Naruto alone. Neither of them would tell me what happened during their battle, only the aftermath. All Naruto said was that Sasuke, "finally saw the light again," and left it at that. I tried pressing for more information, but Naruto refused to say any more and would instantly switch the subject whenever I asked. For a while I debated asking Sasuke, but realized that if Naruto, someone as close as a brother wouldn't tell me, there was no way Sasuke would.

It had been two months since the war ended, and I was no more comfortable with him than I was when we first returned to the village. Luckily I was kept busy for a while, tending to countless wounded from all five nations. However, despite the fact that it had been a few months, we still were finding bodies as well as survivors within the rubble of the war zone.

That was the mission we were sent on. Sasuke was earning his rights back by helping wounded from every village, and I, the top medic, was supposed to accompany him whenever he was sent on a search and rescue. We all doubted there would be anyone posed to attack us seeing as the five nations were still in a truce, so Kakashi always sent small teams of two or three out to cover a larger area quicker. For whatever reason, he refused to pair me with anyone but Sasuke. Whenever I've asked to be put on a team with someone else, Kakashi would wave his hand at me and say something like, "No one else will trust him like you will, I simply can't pair him with anyone else." When I'd bring up Naruto as an option, he would point out that Naruto wasn't a medic, and that it made more sense for him to go with Hinata.

So I was stuck with the one person I really, really didn't want to be stuck with on a mission. I was pretty sure he felt the same way, despite his blank face whenever Kakashi announced I would be the medic to go with him.

Sasuke suddenly lost his footing on a branch in front of me which brought me back to the real world. He flipped over and gracefully landed on the ground—with me right after him.

"Are you alright?" I asked, scanning his body for any injuries I may not have noticed previously—particularly staring at his ankles.

"I'm fine. Let's just keep moving." He spat out, shrugging me off and walking passed me.

My eyebrows furrowed and my fists clenched. I was rooted in my spot, glaring at the ground and fighting tears as my insides pounded me with pain.

It was always like this. Any time something happened and I came to his aide he would coldly shrug me off. I struggled to control my emotions that were screaming at me to yell, cry, and do something, anything to release them.

"Sakura."

"What?" I snapped back, not daring to look at him.

"…I'm sorry. Again."

My eyes shot open, fists relaxed, and insides untwisted, but my eyebrows furrowed harder. I glanced over toward him to see him in a similar posture that I was in. His fists were clenched, and he looked like he was struggling to speak his mind.

"I'm not used to…this." He sighed, attempting to release the tension in his body. It didn't work. "If anyone was kind to me, they had an ulterior motive."

My face softened. This was the most he had opened up to me since he had been back. This also told me something about him that I didn't know before. He was trying. He was really, really trying to integrate back into a "normal" life. I swallowed hard and walked up to him, my heart in my throat. His eyes were focused on a rock, but when I got within a foot of him, he glanced over at me and then quickly looked back away.

I sadly smiled, knowing he was extremely uncomfortable. So instead of hugging him, or speaking back to him, I reached out and grabbed his right hand—his only hand—and pulled him with me as I continued to our destination.

Although we said nothing for the rest of the way there, with his hand in mine, the silence was finally comfortable.

* * *

The huge croak of the door woke her up. Painfully, she opened her eyes toward the shadowed figure that stood in the now-lit doorway. By his chakra signature she instantly knew it was one of the few men she absolutely hated in this world, Daisuke. He had short, black hair and bright green eyes. He was someone whom she would have considered extremely handsome if she didn't know how horrible he was. She could practically hear the smirk on his sick face.

"Ready for your daily medicine?"

In the beginning she would have scoffed, spit at him, hurled something at him, or insulted him. Now, she hung silent in her bonds, knowing that any such action was completely and utterly useless. Not to mention, she currently lacked the strength and will to perform any of those tasks. Daisuke strolled over to her happily, and began wiping her arm in a small spot with some sort of cleaning cloth to prep it for her typical sleep-inducing shot.

She wasn't even sure she'd have the strength to attempt to get away if they kept her awake…but after the last few times when she had caused an immense amount of damage, even in an exhausted state, they certainly weren't going to take any more chances. And so, moments after being injected, she quickly fell into a dreamless state.

The next time she opened her eyes she was in Daisuke's ever-so-familiar laboratory. She was in a chair that resembled a dentist office chair, only this one included chakra-draining restraints. Her upper arms, wrists, forehead, stomach, hips, thighs and ankles were bound to the chair. While this might seem excessive, it was absolutely necessary to have all of them in place. Daisuke and the others had learned the hard way that Sakura could be quite the escape artist when she wasn't completely restrained.

She lay, unmoving and spiritually broken as Daisuke did his daily ritual of injecting her with new substances and watching to see how her body, blood, and chakra network reacted. Usually she would try to remain as still as possible, but sometimes that just wasn't doable. Occasionally her body would convulse, or go into shock or have a seizure. There was simply no telling how she would react to whatever he was giving her. Many times she blacked out and woke back up in her cell. She had been told she had gone into rages, killing many shinobi within the base and woken up with no memory of doing such things. Waiting to see how she responded, Sakura went back into the happy place inside her head.

* * *

After that last search-and-rescue mission, Sasuke would let me do my job as a medic and look him over. He was always extremely tense, which made things awkward, but I was very careful with him and tried to finish as quickly as possible to make him comfortable again.

The village was also getting back to normalcy, with shops re-opening and people walking the streets once more. When I wasn't working in the hospital or doing house-calls as a doctor, I was with Naruto and Sasuke. We worked out together, ate together and stargazed together from on top of the Hokage Mountain three or four days out of the week.

Six months after the war, in the hot July weather, Naruto and I had a huge surprise for Sasuke. We were walking through the village to have lunch at Ichiraku, but this time we took a different route than usual. This part of the village was usually empty, for very good reason. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasuke tense when he realized the path we were headed down, but he said nothing. A huge smile came to my face, he had no idea what was coming.

My smile instantly faltered as Naruto suddenly punched Sasuke in the face.

"What the hell, Naruto?!" Sasuke yelled, blocking a second punch and attempting to return another.

"Quit dodging! I have to hit you seventeen more times!"

I hit my forehead with my palm. Naruto has such a way of showing his affection…

"What?!" Sasuke yelled again, confused.

"It's for your birthday so take it like a man!"

To that, Sasuke growled and the two continued fighting with each other until Sasuke got a good hit on him, which sent Naruto into a nearby fence—putting a huge hole in it.

"OKAY! That's enough!" I yelled, leaving Naruto behind and grabbing Sasuke's hand. He didn't pull away or flinch; leading him by his hand was something that was considered normal now. "Naruto is such an idiot. I swear one day I'm going to kill him." I mumbled, and I heard Sasuke let out a tiny breath of laughter in response which made me smile.

We turned a corner and suddenly Sasuke's hand pulled back, and I almost fell back into him. He didn't let go of my hand, but he did root his feet into the ground. He was staring at the freshly painted, bright, white and red Uchiha fan on the side of a newly built wall. He swallowed and I saw countless emotions running through his eyes. I gave his hand a quick squeeze, which caused him to look down at me, and softly pulled him forward through the gated archway in front of us.

After I pulled him through, I let go of his hand and stepped back, knowing he would need some time alone to process what was in front of him. "Happy Birthday Sasuke."

To our left was a beautiful rock shrine surrounded by dark green grass. On the rock was etched every single member of the Uchiha clan who passed away during the massacre, as well as Itachi Uchiha. To the right of that was a large, newly built home with a red bow on the front door. Surrounding the home were several other empty plots of land.

Silently, Sasuke stepped toward the shrine and began reading the names on it. I stood watching in silence as he did so, and Naruto soon joined me. It took lots of fighting with the elders for us to get the records of Sasuke's clan, but now all those efforts were paying off. Sasuke stared at the shrine for a long time, until I decided it was time to show him the house. I walked over to the front door, Naruto following me, and we called Sasuke's name. As though he were in a trance, his head snapped up and looked over at us. I smiled softly and waved him over. He hesitantly walked to us, and Naruto stuck out his fist at him as he approached, offering a key.

Without missing a beat, Sasuke took the key and unlocked the door, stepping inside.

Naruto broke the thick silence. "We're going to take our leave, Sasuke. I've got stuff to do with Kakashi and I know Sakura is busy as well. If you have any questions for us come find us okay?"

He didn't wait to get a response, and took off, expecting me to go after him. But I hesitated. I knew Sasuke needed to process, but I wasn't so sure he wanted to be alone. His fingers were twitching, and something about him was calling me. He…needed someone right now. I wasn't sure if that someone was me, but I knew he needed some kind of outlet for the emotions overtaking him.

I swallowed down my hesitation, and confidently embraced him from behind, just like that time in the Forest of Death. He instantly tensed at my touch, but then he quickly turned toward me and wrapped his arm around me tightly. My eyes widened as he held as tight as he could with his only arm, letting out a shaky breath. "Thank you." He whispered, tugging at my heart strings.

We held each other for a long while after that, and I've thought about that moment ever since.

* * *

The unusual sound of an explosion made her hearing perk. She forced her tired eyes open and looked around. She was back in her cell, tied exactly the same way again. On her face and body she could feel fresh wounds, certain to be bruises. Her head was pounding.

She must have blacked out again.

The deafening creak of the door and the new light caused her head to throb even more. She would have tightly closed her eyes and shrunk back away from the door as much as her constraints would allow, but her exhausted body refused to listen to her. Malnourished and drained of chakra—almost anything that touched her now felt like she was being punched. She simply hung lifeless in her bonds, awaiting the inevitable torture that was coming once more.

She blinked her eyes back open as soon as she felt the wire around her ankles disappear. It killed her head to use her eyes with the bright light in the room, but her curiosity exceeded her pain. She didn't recognize this man. Suddenly her arms were released, causing her to fall like a rag doll toward the concrete floor. She must have already been sedated before she woke up. A pair of strong arms caught her before she hit her head, and she whimpered softly in pain and fear. They must be taking her to be experimented on again.

The person picked her up bridal-style and as soon as her head hit the person's chest she saw nothing but black.

Sometime later, she awoke again with a hot wind on her body. She shivered and forced her eyes open to take in her new surroundings. Her arms were awkwardly bent inwards, resting on her chest, her legs were crossed at her ankles, and someone was carrying her with an arm under her shoulders and her knees. The green of trees was whirring past her so quickly that she had to shut her eyes again.

Attempting to adjust, she looked up towards whom she assumed was her captor, but the bright sun directly behind the person's head cast their entire face in shadow. She was extremely confused—she hadn't been allowed outside for as long as she could remember. The person said nothing to acknowledge that she was awake and her head hurt too much to discern who it was, so she simply closed her eyes once more and drifted off, pretending she was back home.

* * *

"You know you should have been thrown in jail for what you did. The only reason you're standing here is because of your assistance in the war, and of course due to Naruto and my appeals." Kakashi lectured as team seven stood together at the gates of the village. "Just...don't do anything stupid this time, or I'm going to be the one to take the blame for it."

"Yeah…thanks."

Naruto stepped forward then, handing Sasuke something. Its silver plate reflected the sun brightly.

"You…still have that?" Sasuke asked incredulously, staring at his old, scratched Konoha headband.

"Of course." Naruto smiled, "I think it's time I returned it."

Sasuke nodded and took it, putting it inside his weapons pouch.

I bit my lip and put my hands behind my back, unsure how I was going to approach this conversation. "Do you really have to go?" I asked, sounding more pathetic than I had hoped. "Tsunade is almost finished with an artificial arm for you…"

"I do." He stared at me with eyes that seemed to read through my soul. "I want to see the world without eyes clouded with hatred. I want to see all the things I missed before."

"Well…" I bit my lip again, "What would you say if I asked to come with you?"

He sighed, "This journey is also one of redemption for me, Sakura. My sins have nothing to do with you."

I childishly slumped my shoulders, staring at the ground. "Nothing to do with me…huh?"

Suddenly my heart sped up as two fingers pushed my forehead up and remained on my head. He gave me a rare smile, "I'll see you when I get back…and thank you."

Instantly I felt myself blush—those two words would always have more meaning between us than anyone else would ever know.

After that the three of us, Kakashi, Naruto and myself, watched our friend and comrade walk off once again; however this time there was a promise to return.

And that was the last time I saw him...

Before I was taken.


	2. Reality?

Sakura awoke to complete silence. Terrified of being in an unknown location, she did not dare open her eyes. Instead she felt with her senses for any chakra presences near her. Surprisingly, there were many nearby; far more than she was used to. Luckily none of the presences were within ten square feet of where she lay. There was something strange about the chakra signatures though…they somehow felt…less daunting than usual. The strangest part was that she couldn't find a single familiar signature; every single one was brand new. Extremely cautious, she moved her limbs slowly to see where she was strapped down.

She almost scoffed, it seemed the only thing attached to her was an IV in her arm. She could feel that her strength was returning for once in a very, very long time, and the idiots didn't even bother to bind her. That would be their biggest mistake.

She then noticed the next weird thing about the room—was that…a blanket covering her? They gave her a blanket? And a pillow? And were those socks she felt? What the hell was going on? Her curiosity got the best of her once more, and Sakura slowly blinked her eyes open, but was careful not to move.

The room was dark, but she could tell that she was not anywhere familiar. The walls were white, clean, and it didn't smell as funky as usual. She swallowed hard, forcing saliva down her dry throat, and slowly moved her head to the side to take a better look at her surroundings.

There wasn't much in the room near her bed besides an empty chair, a cupboard, and a closed door that had a square window, spilling light into the room.

Sakura turned her head to the other side and identified an open window with a brilliant view of the clear, night sky. Mesmerized by the stars and the moon, Sakura almost didn't notice the shadow that had joined her in the room.

Almost.

Pretending that she didn't notice, Sakura kept her gaze on the window until she felt the person approach the bed. Within a fraction of a second, she violently ripped the IV out of her arm, whipped up onto her feet and summoned a fireball jutsu—causing an explosion before her attacker could even blink. During the attack she caught a slight glimpse of him—dark hair and dark clothing. Deciding to flee, Sakura ended the jutsu and leapt out the open window behind her.

As she descended a few stories and feeling the attacker's chakra behind her, she realized jumping out the window might not have been the best idea. Quickly she summoned her natural wind chakra and used it to command the wind so she could softly land on the hard concrete in her socks.

No time to think—the person was right on her tail. She needed to get away and she needed to get away _now_. Sakura took off sprinting with lightning speed as she felt a few more chakra signatures join the first. She counted a total of 4 pursuers including the original person she attacked to escape the room.

A blonde man suddenly appeared in front of her and yelled her name. He was clearly brave if he was going to face her head on. Knowing four other people were still chasing her, she did not have time to stop and deal with this one. Summoning chakra again, Sakura did some quick hand-signs and launched a harsh, slicing wind jutsu at him. He staggered slightly, but still tried to grab at her through the wind. Sakura used her new-found speed and reappeared on the other side of him, easily avoiding his grasp.

Despite being out of shape, Sakura sped up her pace even more. There was no way any normal shinobi could catch her at this speed.

However, she spoke too soon.

One of the pursuers caught her, tackling her from behind. It was the one with dark hair that she first attacked. Moving at such a fast speed caused them to fly for several meters before crashing hard into the ground and rolling over each other. The attacker landed on top of her and immediately pinned her arms down.

Running on adrenaline, she simply screamed, releasing a burst of chakra and causing the man to fly off of her. She scrambled to her feet and began running in the same direction when the blonde man caught up again, and instantly tackled her down. She slid across the pavement roughly, several scrapes appearing on her exposed skin. He held her face down with all his body weight crushing into her back.

The man she first threw off quickly recovered and was suddenly there, as well as the other three who were chasing her.

She panicked, grabbed a kunai out of the weapon pouch of the man on top of her before throwing him off and finally stood—surrounded. Taking in her opponents, Sakura staggered. Surrounding her was Hinata, Kakashi, Sai, Sasuke, and Naruto all looking extremely worried. She swallowed hard and looked passed them all to the brick buildings surrounding them. They were in the streets of Konoha.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, twirled the kunai around her finger and harshly slammed the blade into her right thigh, causing those surrounding her to gasp. Pain exploded through her leg and blood crawled down her thigh, but the image of the village and her friends never swayed.

"Well," she mumbled to herself as she pulled the knife out of her leg, "This is almost as good as one of Sasuke's genjutsu." Blood gushed from her wound, pouring onto the ground, but Sakura didn't seem to notice. She was too busy looking around for faults or mistakes, something the caster wouldn't have known about the village or her comrades that she would.

"Sakura why did you stab yourself? Why are you running from us?" Naruto questioned, taking a step toward her—causing her to face him directly and lower into a defensive stance with the kunai. Naruto froze, uncertain how to respond. "Sakura…why did you attack Sasuke and I?"

"She thinks she's in a genjutsu." Sai announced, his hand resting casually on his hip. "Right, Sakura?"

Her eyes flicked over to Sai, and she stood a bit straighter. "Give me a reason to think otherwise."

Naruto's pleading voice spoke up, "We brought you home Sakura! We are trying to understand what happened to you. Please lower the knife…"

She pointed the knife at Naruto, "That's not going to happen until I can figure out what's real and what's not. Until then— _back off._ " She growled, and Naruto stared at her wide-eyed.

"Sakura," Kakashi spoke up, "You've never been susceptible to genjutsu before; what makes you think you are in one now?"

She seemed thoughtful, but her voice was still cold. "Although normal genjutsu has no effect on me, I am susceptible to certain levels of genjutsu. Take, for example, Sasuke's Sharingan."

"But—Sakura!" Naruto's frustration was seeping into his voice, "Why would Sasuke do that now? And who else would have such a powerful genjutsu ability anyway?"

A light-bulb went off in her mind. "I can think of a few."

"What? Who?"

"I've been on my own for a while now Naruto." Sakura began twirling the knife absent-mindedly, "I've seen some things and met some people. Most of them weren't very kind."

Naruto was practically growling, "How are we going to convince you that we are real?"

Finally, Sakura smirked, making the tiger sign with her free hand. "You won't." Sakura burst into cherry blossom petals and fluttered away in the wind before reforming into herself on top of a roof. "You're just going to have to catch me again!" She shouted, and sprinted away.

Fully growling, Naruto shouted her name before taking off after her with the others right on his tail. Or at least, they thought they did. In reality, they were still standing in a circle around Sakura who, thanks to Naruto, had the idea of casting them into a genjutsu. If it didn't work, it would mean she was being manipulated. If it did, however, then she could still be in one unless Sasuke broke the jutsu. She looked around at her old friends, making sure they were fully under her spell.

In anticipation of him breaking the jutsu, Sakura turned to face Sasuke and had to stop herself from flinching. He had already brushed the hair out of his left eye and activated his dojutsu, and was staring at her with one blood-red eye and one Rinnegan eye. She let out a shaky breath, "Sasuke?" Could she really be home?

He stepped toward her, not breaking eye contact.

She lowered the kunai in her hands, feeling the burning of tears beginning to form behind her eyes. "…It's really you?"

His eyes faded back to his natural color and he nodded, letting his bangs fall over his left eye once more.

Overcome with emotion, Sakura's heart rate increased, her lip quivered, she dropped the kunai and threw her arms around Sasuke's torso, pressing tightly against his chest and neck.

Awkwardly wrapping his right arm around her, Sasuke then held up his prosthetic arm and released the genjutsu Sakura had cast on their comrades.

At first angry to wake up, Naruto's emotions quickly changed to sadness and relief when he realized Sakura was crying in Sasuke's arms.

* * *

A needle in her arm made her eyes shoot open and Sakura found herself once again strapped to a chair in the dimly lit room of Daisuke's lab. With her body completely restrained, Sakura panicked as she woke up, violently tugging at every bond.

"Now, now Sakura-chan." Daisuke cooed, stroking her head. "Calm down, it's alright. You were just having a dream sweetheart."

Sakura was practically hyperventilating. "Get the _fuck_ off me." She spat, glaring at him as harshly as she could manage.

He laughed in response, bright green eyes twinkling with delight. "You are so sexy when you're angry. Keep it up dear, it's good to see some life back in you again." He walked around the chair where she was restrained and grabbed a vile of dark red liquid. "See this?" He playfully held it up so she could see, "This is a blood sample I took from you last week. The results to our testing have been just astounding."

Her glare never faltered, but he took her silence as approval to continue speaking. "As you know I've been placing chakra and blood inside of you from users of all different chakra natures, and waiting to see how you react. Usually your body just rejects them, but I've finally found a water-nature chakra that your body _doesn't_ reject and now you're starting to prove my biggest theory! This is going to be a huge breakthrough in shinobi science! Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Yes, wonderful," her voice dripped with sarcasm, "Now _let me go!_ "

A large smack was heard and a bright red handprint throbbed on Sakura's face.

Daisuke quickly spoke into her ear. "I thought we've been over this sweetheart. You're _never_ going home. In fact, we've only just begun here. So why don't you just be a good little girl and shut up so I don't have to gag that pretty little mouth of yours too."

When panicking, Sakura had managed to get her left wrist free, and now she used that to her advantage. She reached up and scratched Daisuke's face, using chakra to deepen the cuts. He screamed and staggered backward as she attempted to free herself of her other bonds. Before she had any opportunity though, electricity crackled and Sakura screamed as her entire body was electrocuted.

* * *

"SAKURA!"

She was smacked again. This time when she shot up from a laying position, she was not restrained. She frantically looked around and it took a moment to recognize the location as the bedroom at Sasuke's house she had been staying in with her former teammates.

"Sakura." Naruto spoke softer this time, arms extended toward her as though she was a rabid dog.

Her breathing slowed and he took a step closer to her. "You're awake now. It's okay. Sasuke and I are here with you."

Sakura tightly closed her eyes, clenching her fists. She was never going to get rest again. Angrily, she hit the wall, causing the entire room to shake. Hardly able to contain herself, she slid down the wall until she was seated on the soft carpet. She held back tears as she brought her shaking hands in front of her face and covered her eyes. "Sorry I woke you…again…" She whispered, untrusting of her own voice.

"Sakura…" His voice was full of pain. It was like this almost every night. The worst part of it was that Sakura refused to share with anyone what her nightmares were about. They could only assume it had to do with her captivity. The truth was that she was too scared to talk to them—to say it out loud. She was actually having an extremely hard time deciding what was real and what was in her head. Every single night she dreamed of waking back up as a captive and in nearly every dream she'd lose consciousness and wake up back home.

Sakura tried remembering what her life _really_ was like as a captive, but towards the end she was unconscious more than conscious—so there was a small possibility that she was _still_ there—and all of this was something her mind made up. There was a possibility that she completely lost it, and there was no way she was going to admit that out loud—for fear of it being true.

"I'm going to go speak with Kakashi. Be back later." Naruto fled from the room, and Sasuke couldn't say he blamed him. The boy had lost many nights of sleep taking care of Sakura, and his marriage was beginning to suffer from it as well.

Alone with her, Sasuke slowly approached the shaking girl on the floor before him. He was unarmed, barefoot, and dressed in pajama bottoms and a fitting tank top. He crouched in front of her and tried to get a better look at her eyes. Sometimes when she woke up from her nightmares, he swore her eyes flashed a different color, but Naruto never seemed to notice.

"Sakura." He spoke, wanting to observe her eyes for any abnormalities, but she refused to look up and kept her eyes glued on his feet. He internally sighed, and swiftly picked her up bridal-style to put her back onto her bed.

Instead of accepting his arms happily like normal, Sakura twisted and, very ungracefully, flung herself back onto the floor, quickly stood up, and then brushed herself off like nothing happened.

Sasuke looked at her incredulously.

She cleared her throat and wiped her wet face off with the inside of her red t-shirt as she spoke. "I—um—I'm going for a walk." She went to the same window Naruto leapt out of, and swung herself up onto the roof wearing nothing but her t-shirt, a pair of black shorts that barely covered her butt, and no shoes.

Knowing he was supposed to escort her for the night, Sasuke sighed and reluctantly followed her, not bothering to put on shoes either. Her actions were too unpredictable now, and that made him extremely wary of letting her out of sight for too long. As he swung up after her, he looked around and realized that she was not present on the roof. Once again she was proving that he should never let her out of sight.

She was gone.

Like completely gone. _What the fuck?_ He spun around 360 degrees but he could not see her and he could not sense her. Spotting the tallest building nearby, Sasuke leapt up onto that roof and did another sweep of the area but this time with his Sharingan active. There was no one in sight. No Sakura, no enemies, nothing. It was like she vanished into thin air. Naruto was going to kill him…

"Nice view, huh?"

Sasuke spun around, holding back from attacking the person since he had recognized the voice as Sakura's. He looked her up and down with his Sharingan to confirm it was indeed her.

"How did you—?" He trailed off, unsure how to ask. "How did you do that?"

"…What do you mean?" Her voice was soft, and her eyes were once again on the ground.

Realizing the Sharingan made her uncomfortable, he deactivated it. "You completely hid your chakra signature. There wasn't a single trace of you around here."

She blinked and looked at herself for a moment, before looking back up to him and smiling. "You really couldn't sense me?" She asked with far too much joy for his liking.

He glared at her, "No. I couldn't."

As her smile grew bigger, his glare grew more intense.

They stayed that for a moment before Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. " _What?_ "

"I snuck up on Sasuke Uchiha!" She shouted, throwing her arms above her head in joy and causing him to slam a hand over her mouth.

"Sakura—" He was really angry now, "It's nearly three in the morning. Keep your voice down."

She pushed his hand away. Her giggling did not cease, but it did get quieter. "You have no idea how much of an accomplishment that is for me." She giggled again, melting away his anger. It had actually been quite a long time since she laughed like that. This was the most of her old personality she had shown since she had been back. He made a mental note that her showing off to him is what made this happen—and made another mental note to tell Naruto.

"Come on," she asked, tugging him toward the direction she wanted to go, "Let's go on a walk."

It had been nearly two years since they walked together hand-in-hand. Back then, when he was finally maturing and not clouded with demise, Sasuke finally understood why Naruto enjoyed being within Sakura's presence all the time. Sakura just brought light and joy to the atmosphere.

He wished that he hadn't left on his journey when he did, because she would have never been taken had he still been around to protect her. Instead, she was alone and vulnerable, and went missing during a solo mission. A year had passed since he had left, and when two Chunin finally found him Sakura had been missing for nearly five months.

Glancing at the girl beside him, he realized she must have grabbed his right hand out of muscle memory since the last time they did this, he didn't have a left arm. He also noticed that a small smile was still present on her face, and unfamiliar warmth filled him again.

Maybe, just maybe things were going to be alright for her.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Thank you everyone for so many positive responses on chapter one. Please let me know what you think of chapter two!**

 **-Alexis Marie**


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